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Lay
A sketch of the history of Benton County, Missouri
F457 .B4 L4
HISTORY
Benton County,
. ....
BY
.
10.(R.)
1
A
SKETCH
- OF THE -
History of Benton County,
MISSOURI,
- BY -
JAMES H. LAY.
: 3178
Prepared for the Centennial Celebration of July 4th, 1876, at Warsaw, Missouri.
BRARY
TY
01
OF CONGRESS 1876. WASHINGTON:
HANNIBAL, MO .: The Winchell & Ebert Printing and Lithographing Company. 1876.
F45 +414 Copy 1
PREFACE.
I was selected to prepare a Sketch of the History of Benton County, Missouri, in response to the following resolution and proc- lamation :
A PROCLAMATION.
WHEREAS, A joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States was duly approved on the 13th day of March last, which resolution is as follows :
Be it Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of , America in Congress Assembled:
That it be and is hereby recommended by the Senate and House of Representa- tives, to the people of the several States, that they assemble in their several counties or towns on the approaching centennial anniversary of our national independence, and that they cause to have delivered on such day a historical sketch of such county or town from its foundation, and that a copy of said sketch be filed in print or manuscript in the clerk's office of said county, and an additional copy in print or manuscript be filed in the office of the Librarian of Congress, to the intent that a complete record may be thus obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first centennial of their existence.
AND WHEREAS, It is deemed proper that such recommendation be brought to the notice and knowledge of the people of the United States; now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby declare and makeknown the same, in the hope that the object of such resolution may meet the approval of the people of the United States, and that proper steps may be taken to carry the same into effect.
Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the 25th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1876, and of the independence of the United States che 100th.
By the President :
HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State.
U. S. GRANT.
Since this duty was assigned me, early in June, I have devoted nearly all my time to it. I soon found that I should not have time to prepare a history of the County, in detail, up to the pres- ent time; and I thought best to devote my inquiries to its earlier period.
I thought it more important to prepare a record of this time, because nearly all those who participated in its events, have passed away. Even now, I find it very difficult to get reliable informa- tion in regard to the first settlement of the county. Although I have used every means possible to get at the facts, correctly, I fear some errors may be found.
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Among those to whom I am especially indebted for informa- tion and aid, are Judge F. P. Wright, Jno. S. Lingle of Sedalia, E. Cameron of Pleasant Hill, A. C. Widdicome of Boonville, Dr. Freed, Henry C. Carpenter, Samuel P. Wetzel, James J. Donald, Charles Walls, J. G. Phillips, Judge S H. Davis, E. T. Condley, Mrs. Jno. B. Lemon, Benj. Harris, Geo. Blanton, Albert Kincaid, Wm. F. Hughes, E. W. Ramsey, C. G. Heath and M. K. McGrath, Secretary of State. I am greatly indebted to Mr. E. T. Rhea for his patience in hunting up old records in his office for me, and to Mr. P. D. Hastain for aid in getting information from these records in shape for use.
WARSAW, Mo., July 4, 1876.
JAMES H. LAY.
CONTENTS.
I.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.
II.
INDIANS.
III. OLD REMAINS.
IV.
FIRST SETTLEMENT.
V.
GETTING HOMES.
VI. ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
VII.
ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS.
VIII. WARSAW.
ยท
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IX.
EARLY COURTS.
X. BANK OF NIANGUA.
XI. SLICKER WAR.
XII. NOTED CRIMINAL TRIALS.
XIII. POMME DE TERRE BRIDGE-CALIFORNIA EXCITEMENT- CHOLERA-IMPROVEMENT OF THE OSAGE- KANSAS WAR.
XIV. CHURCHES.
XV.
NEWSPAPERS.
XVI. WAR OF 1861-CONCLUSION.
APPENDIX.
LIST OF COUNTY OFFICERS. TABLE OF POPULATION.
I.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION.
The first knowledge which the whites had of the region of the Osage, was obtained by De Soto's expedition, nearly 300 years ago, seventy years before Virginia was settled. In the summer of 1541 this expedition reached its most northern limit, supposed to be on the Ozark Mountains, in the vicinity of Springfield. An exploring party, which was sent to examine the regions to the north, reported that they were almost a desert. The country nearer the Missouri was said, by the Indians, to be thinly inhabited ; the bison abounded there so much that no maize could be cultivated, and the few Indians were hunters.
I can find no further mention of this region for about 150 years. In 1705, the French, of Louisiana, sent an exploring expe- dition up the Missouri as far as Kansas City. In the year of 1720, the French, under Renault, began their first mining and fur trading in Southeast Missouri; and it is probable that this imme- diate country was first explored by parties sent out from that vicinity, and by the traders at Kaskaskia, in Illinois. It is very probable that the Osage was visited by the French in search of minerals and furs 150 years ago, and that they continued their expeditions up to and after the time when the country came under the control of the English. After the settlement of Saint Louis, in 1764, the fur trade was an important branch of its business, and there can be little doubt that the Osage was frequented regularly by the agents of the fur traders. But I have been unable to obtain the slightest account of their trade on the river, or even the names of the persons engaged in it. The only record they have left, within my knowledge, is the names of some of the chief branches of the Osage. The Auglaise, the Gravois, the Pomme de Terre (Potato River), the Tebos, the original spelling of which was Thibaut, and the Marias de Cygnes, named from the swans on its lakes, evidently obtained their names from the French. Thibaut was probably the name of a Frenchman who was connected in some way with these streams, and gave his name to them.
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The French doubtless continued to trap, hunt and trade with the Indians until the first pioneer Americans engaged in the same pursuits. Previous to 1820, how long I cannot tell, two French- men, Jeroux and Trudais, had a trading post with the Indians in Vernon County. The only definite account I have of the French in this County, outside of Hogle and Pensinoe's trading post, is of three hunters who lived here within the memory of the old settlers. One, named Mishler, lived near the mouth of Hogle's Creek ; one, named Fouche, in the bottom, now in the Isaac Wick- liff field, and one named Dinwiddee, who lived on the bank of the river, at the head of Dinwiddee Island, a little below the mouth of Grand River. This is the first and the last that seems to be known definitely of the French in Benton.
II. INDIANS.
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The first allusion to the Indians of this country is in the History of De Soto's Expedition, where they are described as a tribe of hunters, not raising corn like the Indians of the Eastern and Southern States. In 1804, Lewis and Clark speak of them as follows : "The Osage owes its name to a nation inhabiting its banks, at a considerable distance from the Missouri. Their present name, however, seems to have originated among the French traders; for among themselves and their neighbors they are called Wabashes. They number between 1,200 and 1,300 warriors, and consist of three tribes :- the Great Osages, of about 500 warriors, living in a village on the south bank of the river ; the Little Osages, of nearly half that number, residing at a distance of about six miles from them; and the Arkansas band, a colony of Osages of 600 warriors, who left them some years ago, under command of a Chief called Big Foot, and settled on the Vermillion River, a branch of the Arkansas. In person, the Osages are among the largest and best formed Indians, and arc said to possess fine military capacities ; but residing as they do in villages, and having made considerable advances in Agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbors, to whom the use of the rifle gives a great superiority." At the time of the location of Harmony Mission, in 1821, near where Papinsville now stands, in Bates County, the Big Osages had quite a large village eight miles northeast of the present town of Nevada, governed by a noted Chief called White Hare ; and there was also a village of Little Osages three miles north of the present site of Balltown. These were, in all probability, the villages described by Lewis and Clark. It is stated in Wetmore's Gazetteer, in 1836, that " One of the largest mounds in this country has been thrown up on the Osage, within the last thirty or forty years by the Osages, near the great Osage village, in honor of one of their deceased chiefs"; and the writer claims that this proves that the mounds of the
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State were thrown up by the later Indians, and not by an older people. The recent examinations, however, of the State Geologist, show that all the large mounds in the western part of the State are natural, and not created by human agency. Smaller villages of the Osages were numerous on the upper Osage. Several con- siderable ones were located near the mouth of Pomme de Terre. One of about 300 wigwams stood in the prairie bottom now covered by the farms of Mr. N. Campbell, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Holland, Five large heaps of stone on the ridge, at the junction, and between Little and Big Pomme de Terre Creeks, mark their graves. They had several small fields in the vicinity. Another small village stood where Judge Alexander settled. He gave them $60.00 for their claim and clearing of seven acres. A larger village stood at the mouth of Hogle's Creek, and at this village Hogle's store stood. The Big Pomme de Terre, up to about 1835, was the dividing line between the Indians and the whites; and Hogle was a Government agent to keep out the whites, and prevent them from selling liquor to the Indians. In the latter duty he is said to have had poor success. There was a small village in the Heath bend. The Shawnees had a village of 200 or 300 persons on what is now Mrs. Stewart's field, in the Shawnee Bend, opposite the mouth of Grand River. A few families also lived in the bottom between the junction of Little Tebo and Sterrett's Creek. Judge Lindsay bought out one of their clear- ings, and Milton Kincaid bought another, at the place where Mr. Albert Kincaid's house now stands. He gave them $9.00.
The Indians were probably moved out of the State to their reservations in Kansas, over which there has been lately such important litigation, about the year 1835. Their title to the land was purchased, as near as I can ascertain, in 1808. The Govern- ment had a trading post at Fort Osage, now called Sibley, in the north-east corner of Jackson County, and dealt with the Indians in this region through her agents there. They continued to come into the country on hunting expeditions for several years after the County was organized; perhaps as late as 1840. There is little of romance or tragedy connected with their history in this county. They were peaceable in their intercourse with the whites. The only affair of a hostile nature in which they were engaged is the following, which is narrated to me by one of the participants :
Some time after the Indians moved out of the county, about twenty hunters, with their ponies, squaws and papooses, came in
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on a hunting expedition and camped on Niangua. It was report- ed to the authorities at Warsaw that they were killing the hogs of the settlers. D. C. Ballou, who was Colonel of the militia, called out a company, of which Thomas J. Bishop was Captain, and J. G. Phillips First Lieutenant. They marched down to the Niangua through the rain, and surrounded the Indian camp while the hunters were all out hunting. After the guards were placed around the camp, an old squaw, wife of the Chief, Capt. Bob, mounted a pony, and attempted to leave the camp. Cabel Crews was on guard where she tried to go out. He ordered and motioned her back, whereupon she drew a butcher knife from her stocking and prepared to fight. Capt. Bishop cried out, " Knock her off, Crews," and Crews promptly did so, cutting her head till the blood flowed freely. The other squaws and children raised a terrible uproar when she fell. Crews was about to strike her again, when Lieutenant Phillips cried out, " You Crews ! don't you hit her ; you'll raise a bloody war right here." Crews obeyed the pacific order of his commander, and war was avoided. The hunters came in one by one, or in small parties, and the locks were taken off their guns; the guns of the militia being so wet that they would not fire. The husband of the old squaw was very indignant when he learned of the harsh treatment she had received, and tried to find out who struck her. No further vio- lence ensued, however, and the Indians were brought up and quietly moved out of the County.
III. OLD REMAINS.
A good deal has been said about the ancient remains of the Osage Valley, and some carly writers claimed that such remains were very numerous, and indicated an older people than we have any account of. But a little acquaintance with the country has shown that very little work was ever done here by human agency before the settlement by the whites.
The most important old remains, on the Osage, are at Halley's Bluff, two miles above Belvoir, and in that vicinity. On the Bluff are the remains of three furnaces, and at the foot of the Bluff are twenty-three jug-shaped holes, excavated in the rock. Around the furnaces, and covering the approach to the excavations, are the remains of earth and stone fortifications.
In the neighborhood are other excavations in the carth, and a few miles down the river is another old furnace.
Some have supposed this work to have been done by De Soto, during his expedition in 1541-2; but the existence of pick marks in the soft sand-stone, seems to disprove that the work was done so long ago. It was, in all probability, done by the French, who are known to have traded with the large Indian villages in the immediate vicinity.
The lines of beautiful mounds running off north and south from this place, and the several branches of the Osage coming together here, in so lovely a country, made it a prominent location with the Indians, and drew to this point the chief trade of the French.
In this County are found the remains of several furnaces, in the bottom, at the lower end of Henry Breshears' field, four miles from Warsaw. They were doubtless constructed by the French for testing their minerals when prospecting, or possibly for smelt- ing a considerably quantity of lead ore, which they may have found. The early miners in Southwest Missouri used furnaces similar to a lime kiln to smelt lead. Near Joseph Monroe's, on a
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hill side, on the ridge between Grand River and Osage, is a spot where several square rods have been dug over to a slight depth. It is doubtless one of the many places, which, as our geologists decide, with every show of reason, were dug over by the Indians to get flint.
There are in the County some heaps of stone, on the bluffs, that are called Indian graves. One is on the bluff of Little Tebo, near Mr. George Blanton's. The largest that I have heard of are on the ridge near Mr. John Holland's house. There are five large mounds of loose stones, in which skeletons and trinkets have been found. There are also some graves on the bluff below the Sulphur Springs, on the Osage.
Soon after Benton County was organized, perhaps in 1838, several Frenchmen came up the river in search of buried silver. They stated that many years before, a company of Frenchmen were coming down the river in boats, with a large quantity of silver coin, or bullion ; that the Indians pursued them along the banks till the French, becoming alarmed, abandoned their boats, buried their silver and guns, and took to the woods, near the mouth of Pomme de Terre. One of the company claimed to be a brother of one of the party who buried the silver, and to have received minute descriptions of the locality where the silver was buried, and of marks that had been made to point out the spot. The searchers found, at the lower end of the bottom, where Henry Breshear's farm now is, a rock, placed in a notch cut in a tree, and on digging at the spot toward which the rock pointed, they actu- ally found a large lot of old guns. They also, it is said, found guns in the bottom at the head of Dean Island. But, after a long search for the silver, they went away without success. The old guns were thrown around a store at the Warsaw ferry for a long time. afterwards. An old resident has spent much time this spring of 1876 searching for the silver.
Tradition does not tell where the silver came from, though the popular story is that it was mined and smelted at the old furnaces up the river. This is entirely improbable, for if valuable silver mines had ever been worked on the river, the knowledge of them would not have been lost. If there was any silver buried, and there really seems some reason to think there was, it was proba- bly obtained by trade at the Indian towns in Vernon, or brought over the plains by adventurers from Santa Fe, who fell on the
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head of the Osage on their way back to the Mississippi. The last suggestion is not entirely improbable, for as early as 1720, the Spaniards at Santa Fe, hearing of the settlements of the French on the Upper Mississippi, and wishing to push them back, entered into a league with the Osage Indians to exterminate the French and the Missouri Indians, who were steadfast friends of the French. In pursuance of the plan, the Spanish came across from Santa Fe with a large force, and with their families and stock, to form a settlement. They fell in with the Missouris, thinking them their allies (the Osages), and while off their guard were all slaughtered except one priest. Trading expeditions went from the Missouri River to Santa Fe as early as 1805 and 1812, and it is possible that a party of these traders may have returned down the Osage with silver.
At an early day a large quantity of the bones of the mammoth, or mastodon, were found at two places in this County-one on the farm now owned by the Chas. Wiekliff heirs, on the Osage ; the other near the farm of Alexander Breshears, on the Big Pomme de Terre. At the Wickliff farm Messrs. Case and Redmond took out a large part, perhaps nearly the whole, of a large skeleton, shipped it to Cincinnati, I think, and obtained a large sum of money for it. One of the tusks is said to have been nine feet long. Others have obtained small quantities of bones at the same place. Drs. Sill & Crawford, a few years ago, took out some very interesting specimens, which they still have at their store.
On the Pomme de Terre a Scotchman, named Cott, took out with little labor, a large, complete, and well preserved skeleton ; took it east, and is said to have sold it for $20,000. The fame of his success caused others to dig for the bones, and two brothers, . named Bradley, from Boone County, went to work at the Breshears deposits, kept from fifteen to twenty hands at work for several months, and took out a large quantity of bones. But the spring at the place so filled the diggings with water that they had to employ a pump to keep the water out, and worked at great expense ; and the bones they secured were so badly decomposed that on coming to the light and air they generally fell to pieces, and the Bradleys were broken by the venturo.
IV.
FIRST SETTLEMENT.
The first location in the County by whites, of which I have any distinct account, was made by a German named John F. Hogle, and a Frenchman named Pensinoe. They established a trading post at an Indian village at the mouth of Hogle's Creek, in what is now the Stephens field, on the Osage. Other Indian villages were near them. In what year they came I am unable to learn, but they were probably there several years before any other settlers came. Hogle was an agent of the Government with the Indians, and from him Hogle's Creek took its name. In 1832 Thomas J. Bishop, a young man, came out and was employed by Hogle as clerk, and soon succeeded him in business. The post was known to the early settlers as Bishop's store. This store probably continued in operation till 1837 or 1838, till the Indians left, and business was done at Warsaw.
The first trace of English speaking people of which I have been able to obtain any information, is the old Boonville and Springfield road. This road is spoken of in the earliest records of the County as the "Old Road," and was known among the first settlers as the "old road," or the " old military road." From these names my inference is that the road was originally cut out by the United States government for military purposes. It extended from Palmyra, on the Mississippi river, through Boon- ville, Springfield and Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Fort Smith, and was the chief route of travel from the upper Mississippi to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. It was regularly located and cut out to the legal width by act of March 7, 1835. The Old Harmony Mission road, leaving the Boonville and Springfield road near Cole Camp, and running through the northern part of the County, was probably traveled before Benton County was settled, the Mission having been established in 1821 by missionaries from New York, who went up the Osage in keel boats.
Ezekiel Williams is commonly understood, and I believe cor- rectly, to have been the first Anglo-Saxon settler in Benton
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County. According to the best information I can get, he came in the fall of 1830, or early in 1831, and settled first on the Fordney place, and soon afterwards, on the well-known old Williams farm, in the bottom, about three miles southwest of Cole Camp, on the old road. He was one of the followers of Lewis and Clark in their expedition across the Rocky Mountains in 1804. Oliver L. G. Brown, about the same time, settled on Cole Camp Creek, near the crossing of the old road. About the time Mr. Williams came, or a little later, two young men named Ross built a cabin on Ross Creek, near its mouth, and remained there a short time, and from them the creek takes its name. In February, 1831, Mannen Duren built a cabin in Colo Camp bottom, opposite the mouth of Duren's Creek, which took its name from him. He came from Pettis county during the winter season, with his stock, which wintered chiefly on the grass in the bottoms. He settled at a very early day on the old road, where Marcellus Jeans now lives, William Kelley having first settled the place.
In the fall of 1831 Lewis Bledsoe located where the old road crossed the Osage, about one mile and a half above Warsaw, and established a ferry. He built his cabin on the river bank, on a spot now in Dr. Crawford's field. A man named Yearger had, soon after, a small store at the same place. In the fall of 1831, Stephen A. Howser settled on the point close to Gillett's mill, in Warsaw. I have reason to suppose, but no positive information, that he bought a small clearing of the Kiekapoo Indians, who, like himself, had been attracted to the spot by the rich soil, and the fine spring in front of Charles Wall's house. His house remained for six years the only one on the present site of Warsaw. County Court was occasionally held at his house before the Court House was built. He and his sons have been quito noted in the history of the County. He was County Collector in 1835 and 1836, was one of the first Justices of the Peace, and in 1840 was appointed County Judge for a short time, to fill the vacaney occasioned by the death of Judge Lindsay. He and his sons were warm supporters of the Jones party in the "Slicker War," and his son Thomas, in an affray at Warsaw, stabbed Habaugh, a Turk- man, and was himself shot by Mackey, another Turkman. His son, Stephen H. Howser, was the famous Houge Howser, who attained a wide spread reputation as a lawless man; George Howser, another son, was killed at his home, near Warsaw, early in the war of 1861, and his brother, Rice Howser, was killed in
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the battle at Cole Camp. He was at the time Postmaster at Warsaw.
Judge William White settled, in 1831, or possibly in 1832, on the Jessie Drake place. Philip Hall settled at the same time on the James R. Coe place, and shortly afterwards on the old Philip Hall place, west of Jesse Drake's. He bought a clearing from the Indians, and had one of the first mills in the County.
In the spring of 1832, as near as I can learn, Geo. H. Hughes, father of William F. Hughes, Levi Odineal, Thomas Moon, and one Alsup came from Cooper County, expecting to make money by raising stock on the rye grass in the bottoms. A severe winter killed the grass, and much of their stock perished. They first settled on the old Tyree placo. In the fall of 1832, Sympkins Harryman and Daniel Nave settled in the same neighborhood. He at first settled, for a short time, on the W. H. Williams, or Doss place, near Fairfield. Wm. Rippetoe settled about the same time on the E. B. Cunningham place. He was the first white man on Pomme de Terre.
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